In the production of leukocyte reduced red blood cells, plasma and platelet components, a blood bag set that includes a filled donor bag, a component bag for each blood product, and one or more leukocyte removal filter(s) connected together by tubing, is spun in a centrifuge. The present invention provides a means for a user to consistently load this blood bag set into a centrifuge bucket, resulting in high quality blood component products.
After a donor blood bag is filled with whole blood drawn from a donor, the blood bag is spun in a centrifuge to separate the whole blood into components of red cells, plasma, and platelets. In addition to the donor blood bag, a red blood cell bag, a plasma bag and a platelet bag are attached to the donor blood bag with tubing to make a blood bag set. The red blood cell bag, a plasma bag and a platelet bag are also known as satellite bags.
In a conventional centrifuge system, the blood bag set is either placed directly into a centrifuge bucket or into an adapter that is then placed into the bucket. A user literally stuffs the blood bag set into the bucket or adapter. The placement of the blood bag set into the centrifuge bucket or adapter may affect the separation consistency and the quality of the blood components.
The bucket has pockets that are machined, molded, injection molded or formed so that the bucket is pivotable about pins disposed about a rotor body. At rest the bucket orientation is vertical but when the rotor is rotated about its axis the bucket swings outward to a horizontal position relative to the axis of the rotor. This horizontal orientation allows for a more distinct separation of blood components.
Recently, blood bag manufacturers introduced leukocyte removal filters to the blood bag sets to improve quality of blood products. These blood bag sets with filters must be centrifuged. In addition to the added volume, the filters must be adequately supported to prevent damage to the filter(s) during centrifugation. The filters must also be loaded into the centrifuge bucket so as not to damage the donor bag or any of the satellite bags. Several prior art systems have attempted to minimize the potential damage to the filters.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,996 to Spielberg, describes a blood filtering system that includes a filter having a support to hold the filter in place on top of a blood bag centrifuge bucket. This system suffers from several deficiencies. The size of the filter that can be accommodated is dictated by the diameter of the bucket, the system does not appear to be capable of accommodating multiple filters, and the internal volume of the bucket cavity that is available for the blood bag is reduced when the support is present.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,564 to Pallet al. describes a blood collecting and processing system in which filter assemblies are retained by a bracket. The bracket is configured to fit into a centrifuge bucket to protect the filters. Disadvantageously, the bracket appears to be capable of retaining only a filter for which the bracket is particularly designed. Furthermore this arrangement also reduces the internal volume of the bucket cavity, thus reducing the volume available for a blood bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,591 to Hagihara et al. describes a system in which a filter is placed outside of a centrifuge bucket and secured relative to the rotor. The deficiencies of this approach are that the filters are inconvenient to install because they must be secured to the rotor body, and the tubing between the filter and a blood bag may interfere with the swinging of the centrifuge bucket. This arrangement of the tubing may prevent the bucket from swinging to its fully horizontal position, or the tubing may get caught between the bucket and the rotor body to prevent the bucket from properly returning to its vertical position. The interference with the movement of the bucket also adversely impacts the quality of the blood components.
The deficiencies of the systems described above are overcome by the present invention.
A centrifuge bucket in accordance with the present invention is for holding a first article, and further comprises a compartment for holding a second article, and a means for securing the compartment to an outer surface of the centrifuge bucket. The securing means can be, for example, a groove for accommodating a lip situated along an edge of the compartment.
A compartment attached to a centrifuge swinging bucket holds one or blood component filters of a blood bag set. The compartment securely houses the filter(s) and segregates the filter(s) from other parts of the blood bag set. This eliminates potential damage to the filter and potential damage caused by the filter to any of the bags in the blood bag set. Moreover, the compartment is outside the bucket cavity envelope, thus increasing the usable volume of the bucket cavity. A centrifuge manufacturer, rather than making a centrifuge bucket dedicated for use with a particular filter, can adapt a less costly filter compartment to the centrifuge bucket to accommodate filters of various shapes.